US Health Body Experts' Exit From Some DRC Areas Had No Impact On Ebola Response -Ministry

US Health Body Experts' Exit From Some DRC Areas Had No Impact on Ebola Response -Ministry

The withdrawal of experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not affect the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Jessica Ilunga, a spokeswoman for the DRC Ministry of Public Health, told Sputnik on Saturday.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2018) The withdrawal of experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not affect the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Jessica Ilunga, a spokeswoman for the DRC Ministry of Public Health, told Sputnik on Saturday.

CDC spokesman Benjamin Hayes told Sputnik on Friday that the health body hoped for a tangible improvement in the security situation in several Ebola-hit areas in the DRC to send back its experts there.

"It hasn't impacted the Ebola response as they [CDC experts] were only in [the northeastern city of] Beni for two or three days before their withdrawal, and they continue following the response even from Kinshasa and Atlanta," Ilunga said.

The spokeswoman added that no other experts working on the Ebola outbreak in the areas with increased security risks had expressed their desire to withdraw, stressing that all experts are protected during their work.

"Experts [working] in the field are already protected by the national police, the national army and the MONUSCO [United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC] when carrying Ebola response activities in dangerous areas," she stressed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that as of October 23, 247 Ebola cases, including 159 fatal ones, had been registered in seven health zones in the province of North Kivu and three health zones in the province of Ituri. The area also suffers from instability due to the ongoing clashes between local militants and government troops.

The Ebola virus is transmitted to humans from wild animals and is estimated by the WHO to have a 50-percent fatality rate. Ebola is named after the DRC's Ebola River, near which the virus was discovered by a team of Professor Peter Piot in 1976.